See Rock City

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

William Christopher "W. C." Handy

W. C. Handy, African American composer, bandleader, publisher, and
"Father of the Blues," combined the contemporary ragtime and Latin
rhythms he had encountered in vaudeville, minstrel shows, and extensive
travels with the black folk music of his heritage into the unique
twelve-bar harmonic structure that became known throughout the South as
the blues. Handy's 1912 publication of "The Memphis Blues," the first
published blues composition, gained him national attention and
designated Memphis as the "Home of the Blues." A truly American musical
style, the blues played a key role in the development of jazz and other
popular forms.

Handy was born November 16, 1873, in Florence,
Alabama. The son of former slaves, he understood plantation life and the
struggles of post-emancipation African Americans. The music and
struggles absorbed in his childhood inspired Handy's own compositions.
Both his father and paternal grandfather were ministers and had hopes
that Handy would follow in their footsteps. Much to his parents' dismay,
however, music captured his imagination at an early age. The Handys
considered musicians a disreputable lot, and when young Handy proudly
showed them the guitar for which he had been anxiously saving for
months, they strongly disapproved and made him exchange it for a
dictionary.

Handy's love for music grew in spite of his family's
lack of encouragement. At school he learned basic music principles
through vocal instruction and began to share his teacher's interest in
folk singing. As a teenager, he met Memphis violinist Jim Turner, who
had come to Florence to begin an orchestra. Enticed by Turner's
glamorous talk of Beale Street, Handy obtained a cornet and practiced
secretly. Handy worked with Turner's group, earning a decent salary. He
hoped his efforts would win his parents' approval, but by this time,
nothing could deter Handy from his musical ambitions. Against his
parents' wishes, Handy played, sang, and attended dances. At age fifteen
he joined a local minstrel show as first tenor.

Before embarking
on a full-fledged musical career, Handy taught school and worked for an
Alabama pipe company. He continued to sing and play with various groups,
most of which were temporary informal troupes. In the early 1890s
Handy's first real attempt to make music his profession landed him in
St. Louis, broke and alone. A low point in his life, the hard times he
experienced in that city later inspired his most famous work, "St. Louis
Blues" (1914).

In August 1896 Handy's luck changed when he
received an offer to join Mahara's Minstrels, a Chicago-based musical
company, as a cornet player. With this group, Handy gained valuable
experience and matured as a professional musician and composer. He
advanced quickly to the position of bandleader and began to add his own
compositions and arrangements to their repertoire. The group's extensive
travels throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Cuba expanded
Handy's musical knowledge and skill by introducing him to a variety of
new rhythms and sounds. In 1900 Handy, by now married, left the
Minstrels to accept a position at the Agricultural and Mechanical
College in Huntsville, Alabama. After only two years of leading the
school's band and orchestra, however, Handy rejoined the Minstrels for
one additional year. By this time his reputation as a bandleader was
becoming well known, and in 1903 he received offers from both a white
Michigan municipal band and a black orchestra associated with the
Knights of Pythias in Mississippi. Handy chose the latter even though it
was a less prestigious and profitable position.

Handy made
frequent trips to Memphis, and in 1907 he decided to make the city, with
its strong African American entertainment scene, his home. The Gayoso
Street theater district, which included Beale Street, was home to such
popular venues as Tick's Big Vaudeville, the Dixie, the Lyric, and the
Savoy. Here, Handy published his first work, "The Memphis Blues."
Initially titled "Mr. Crump," it served as a 1909 campaign song for
Memphis mayoral candidate Edward H. Crump, who had hired Handy's band to
promote his platform. The crowds went wild for the tune Handy had
composed, and in 1912, after it was rejected by several popular music
publishers, he published the sheet music under the new title. With
limited sales and mounting expenses, Handy sold the rights to "The
Memphis Blues" to a New York composer for one hundred dollars. The new
owner added lyrics and republished the song, selling over fifty thousand
copies by 1913. Although Handy did not benefit financially from his
work, he gained a huge following, which established him and Memphis as
important sources of the new musical style.

Handy, now wiser to
the business side of music, formed a partnership with lyricist Harry H.
Pace and began to capitalize on his recent notoriety. Located on Beale
Street, the Pace and Handy Music Company published a series of blues
hits including "Yellow Dog Rag," "Joe Turner Blues," and "Hesitation
Blues." Handy's success increased with each new release and paralleled
the rising popularity and mainstream acceptance of the blues. His third
published composition is perhaps his most successful and best-known
work. An immediate hit upon its release in 1914--and again in 1925, when
it was recorded by Bessie Smith and Louis Armstrong--"St. Louis Blues"
remains a classic blues number.

In 1917 Pace and Handy moved their
business to New York City. The partnership eventually dissolved, but
Handy continued to perform and write successfully, and in later life he
published his autobiography. By the time of his death in 1958, the blues
music that Handy had helped make a commercial success was a
well-established and widely accepted American musical style. Handy's
works have remained timeless classics over the years and affirm his
reputation as "Father of the Blues."